This Frontier Needs Heroes Go with The Flow Self Release
When Brad Lauretti (who performs under the name ‘This Frontier Needs Heroes’) was picking a producer for his fifth album, he made the inspired choice of turning to his friend Johnny Irion. The project was recorded in Irion’s Massachusetts studio on an analogue Studer Tape Machine which had originally belonged to Jackson Browne. The result is a captivating work of country/folk magic, sonically very reminiscent of the new Laurel Canyon sound associated with Jonathan Wilson and friends.
As the strange moniker might suggest, Brad Lauretti was influenced to take up songwriting when he first heard Woody Guthrie. The band name recalls the slogan Guthrie famously had stuck onto his acoustic guitar. Lauretti formed a duo with his sister when they were both NYC based, ten years ago. Over the intervening years he has also lived in Florida, and now Nashville, and he has toured extensively in Europe and Scandinavia (though he hasn’t made it to Ireland yet!). His band has evolved to just comprising himself, and he calls on other musicians when he’s recording.
The title track reflects Lauretti’s laissez faire life philosophy - we each should make the most of our circumstances - and was inspired by tubing in the sea off the Florida coast. Starting with a gentle pace and Lauretti’s echoey vocals over an acoustic guitar, it moves into a full sound with Irion’s electric guitar and piano, Brian Kantor (Fruit Bats, Vetiver) on drums, Wes Buckley’s bass and Rory Verbrugge’s pedal steel. Lush backing vocals are used often, contributing to the ‘retro’ sound all over this record. The lead single and strongest song here (among many highlights) is the dreamy psychedelic South Dakota, the sad tale of being kissed by a woman from said state one night when he arrived in Nashville, only to be ‘ghosted’ by her subsequently!
Although not as overtly political as his hero Woody Guthrie, Lauretti doesn’t shy away when it comes to making his feelings known about current events and trends in his native USA. Fossil Fuel Fascists needs no explanation, and Dumb It Down (done in a rockabilly style with Hammond organ thrown in) takes a potshot at the commercial songwriters in Music Row (or what’s left of it) and also satirises the current democratic crisis in the age of disinformation.
There’s much more to discover here in a collection of well-crafted and accessible songs and I encourage you to explore it for yourself. It’s already in my Top 10 of 2020 releases.
Review by Eilís Boland
Kristen Grainger & True North Ghost Tattoo Self Release
Folk meets bluegrass meets singer-songwriter on Kristen Grainger’s latest recording, produced by herself and her band True North, in their native Oregon. Accompanied predominantly by acoustic guitar and mandolin, the songs are lyric driven and easy on the ear, mostly sung by Kristen in her warm rich tones. She is also the principal songwriter of these story songs and songs of encouragement and hope.
All of the band pitch in on backing vocals, Josh Adkins plays bass, Martin Stevens plays fiddle and mandolins and Dan Wetzel plays guitar and mandolin.
Wishes and Dreams stands out - it’s very much a collaboration between Grainger (lyrics) and her husband Dan Wetzel (music). The fast paced driving guitar and incisive mandolin lines and breaks deliver the perfect vehicle for this tale of lost love.
As well as the eight originals, there are four well chosen cover songs, including the Secret Sisters’ Mississippi and When No One’s Around from the pens of Tim O’Brien & Darrell Scott.
Worth checking out.
Review by Eilís Boland
Cina Samuelson Sing With Your Heart and Soul CCM
This artist started singing Country music songs at a very young age and for many years was part of the band, Freetown Highway, along with her brother Berra Karlsson (one of the most in-demand pedal steel players in Sweden). Having released a number of albums, Cina decided to leave and commence a solo career in 2000, a move that has brought her many accolades both at home and abroad.
As a country music artist, she is more than the equal to her peers across the water in America and she sings with a confidence borne of years spent developing her craft and building a loyal following. This is her fifth solo record and follows on from her 2014 retro album ROOTS & MEMORIES.
What a very enjoyable album it is too, filled with stellar playing from all involved; a cast that includes her brother on pedal steel, together with thirteen studio players and a number of backing vocalists. All songs are written by Cina and she is a natural at capturing an authentic Country sound across these songs, which includes a tribute to her Grandmother on the title track.
Cina also produced the album with the assistance of Peter Dahl and her brother, Berra. The ten songs were also recorded live, in two different Swedish studios and titles such as Connie and Loretta, All I Wanna Do On A Saturday Night and Give A Big Hand To the Band are straight down the line Country with some great Honky Tonk grooves included.
Opening track, How Long Is Forever and Why Can’t We Talk Anymore are two songs about broken relationships, the former has a real up-tempo rhythm, while the latter is a slow, sad lament that highlights Cina’s ability to produce a torch song delivery.
I Miss You is a song for her Mother, who sadly died after battling cancer, with a heartfelt vocal and sensitive pedal steel and piano accompaniment. You and Me is a song to a school friend who stood by her when bullying was causing real problems and the slow Country waltz frames the hand of friendship perfectly.
The final track, Sweet Mama, Elvis and Me is a fine way to wrap things up with another Honky Tonk workout, piano keys tinkling above the driving beat and Cina singing out with a real passion and zeal. A really excellent album and one that contains many enjoyable moments.
Review by Paul McGee
Meadow Creek Pieces Of Driftwood Parlaply
This second album from Swedish husband/wife duo Peter and Linda Dahl is another fine example of what has been termed ‘Swedicana’ in some music circles. It is telling that Country music has such a strong support in a part of the world more renowned for ABBA and IKEA. However, when you consider that Sweden has a very healthy Folk music tradition, it’s not a great leap to understand the interest in authentic Country sounds.
Peter plays acoustic and electric guitars, bass, Hammond organ and sings, with Linda starring on both lead and harmony vocals across the ten tracks. The production is very clean and the studio musicians that played include Jimmy Glava (electric guitar), Berra Karlsson (pedal steel) and Petra Wahlgren (fiddle), with two separate drummers, Erik Lindstedt (2 songs) and Marcus Nowak (7 tracks), Tommy Hentila (bass on 2 tracks), Lazze Lovgren (bass on 1 track) and Johan Gullbo (Hammond B3 on 1 track).
Set the World On Fire and Loaded Gun are two fast tunes that display plenty of attitude and advice about taking chances in life, knowing when to change direction and grasping the moment. Love Like Yours and Mine and We Are the Best Part Of Me are two slow love songs that celebrate the bond between two people, forgiving mistakes made and knowing when the pieces fit.
There is a great Country Blues feel to When Old Daddy Is Gone and Vampire’s Kiss is a tale of broken trust and seeking revenge. Overall, this is a very solid second outing and highlights the experience that both artists have gained over the 20-plus years they have been making music together.
Review by Paul McGee
A.K.& the Brotherhood Oh Sedona! Paraply
Alo Karlsson formed his band, A.K. & the Brotherhood in 2015. Their debut album was The Outlaw Americana Sessions and this new release follows in a very similar vein to the image that is conjured up by that title. They are a really excellent Alt. Country band with a very polished sound, both melodic and rootsy in equal measure. Despite some changes in personnel, the creative core of the band remains Alo himself, on lead & background vocals, plus acoustic guitars. He is supported by drummer Daniel Uhlas and a group of studio musicians who join the duo for some incisive interplay and harmonious riffing on these twelve tracks. The running time of the project is just over the 55-minute mark but quite honestly, I was left wanting more; a rare feeling in the normal course of listening to any similar, lengthy album.
The producer is Johan Glössner, a multi-instrumentalist, who delivers on a wide range of guitars, banjo, keyboards, melodica and background vocals. The overall sound is very much alive in the speakers and this is a big factor in not having the length of the album become a negative; the separation on instruments is very good and the mix allows everything to be clearly heard.
Since forming the band, Alo has followed his vision to make authentic music and the feeling that he brings to these songs proves this to be his strength. Kicking off with California Free Bird, an important start to give direction to the project, with an assured, classic Americana sound and an autobiographical look at where life has shaped the journey taken. For the Long Run is a slower love song to his partner and full of hope for the future together, given the time that has strengthened them as a couple.
Sweet Miranda is an upbeat song with a bar-room bluesy groove, reminiscent of The Band and an infectious melody; ‘Neither wine or John Prine can soothe me the way that you do.’. The duet on Big City Sidewalks with Sofia Loell bears slow witness to trying to make it in the city, while love pays the price. The nostalgia of Where All the Dreams Go is wrapped with pedal steel and up-tempo groove, while Man Up has both attitude and strut, as it tells a friend to grow up, snap into reality and the song has a great guitar break. Halfway to Anywhere is a great workout with sage advice that life ain’t fair and the words, ‘I’m Already Half Way To Nowhere.’
The sweet crooning delivery on Guiding Light is reminiscent of a Willie Nelson arrangement with piano, gypsy violin and brushes nudging the slow groove. Broken Rainbows finishes everything with great style and the ensemble really knitting into the dynamic and playing out a tale of learning lessons from daily living.
A very impressive album, full of colour and craft. I find myself hitting repeat play and looking forward to more in the future from this exciting artist.
Review by Paul McGee
Seamus Fogarty A Bag Of Eyes Domino
Co. Mayo born and currently residing in London, A BAG OF EYES is Seamus Fogarty’s third album and follows on the success of his 2017 release THE CURIOUS HAND.
The songwriting may be standard Fogarty, with reminisces of his past and present lives in Ireland, London and farther afield. However, the sonic experience is an altogether, if not entirely unexpected, departure from his previous work. On this album Fogarty has all but abandoned his characteristic guitar led sound for a more experimental and edgy sonic venture and the results are highly impressive.
Impossible to categorise, Fogarty’s musings are delivered both spoken and semi spoken, bedecked by banjo and occasional guitar and embellished by all manner of electronic bleeps, drum loops and field recordings.
It’s a combination that really should only appeal to the ear of the creator, but actually works spectacularly well. The whole project was created and produced in its entirety by Fogarty as he gathers his thoughts and offers them wrapped up in diverse instrumentation.
Plucked banjo introduces the hilarious Nuns (‘nuns in the school, a nun driving a car, nuns down the chipper, a nun behind the bar’) as Fogarty considers the unexpected disappearance of those blessed ladies, so prominent in his childhood days in Co. Mayo. Horse, a standout track for me, tells of the immigrant returning home after a life spent in the U.K., followed by a stint in Spain teaching English (‘Now he’s home, what a man, see how well he wears that tan’). It’s a glorious combination of layered vocals, integrated synths and bleeps.
Two short instrumentals are included, Interlude and the haunting Wake Up Felix. Ghosts kicks off as dreamy alt-folk before spiralling off in an entirely different direction mid-song and descending into hallucinogenic mayhem. Jimmy Stewart finds Fogarty in self-deprecating form, making comparisons with himself and the character played by that actor in the movie Rear Window, looking out his window and concocting stories about his neighbours. My Boy Willie is traditional folk, banjo lead and telling the tale of a loved one lost at sea.
Contributors on the album include Fogarty’s partner and violin virtuoso Emma Smith, former Race Horses member Meilyr Jones, composer/producer Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Jarvis Cocker, Paul Simon) and musical all-rounder Euan Hinshelwood.
Channelling folk down an altogether different path, Fogarty has raised the bar a number of notches with A BAG OF EYES. Pick up a copy, get the headphones on, crank it up and treat yourself to a quite unique musical experience.
Review by Declan Culliton
Kelsey Waldon They’ll Never Keep Us Down Oh Boy
‘’One of the most authentic country voices I’ve heard in a long time’’ said John Prine, when signing Kentuckian singer songwriter Kelsey Waldon to his Oh Boy Record Label, their first signing to the label in eighteen years. Kelsey is no stranger to Lonesome Highway and an artist that has been very much on our radar having seen her perform a number of times at Americana Fest in Nashville. We also had the good fortune of meeting and interviewing her earlier this year when she played Whelan’s in Dublin, before the world was turned upside down.
Kelsey’s 2019 album WHITE NOISE /WHITE LINES gained universally positive reviews, resulting in invitations to open for both John Prine and Drive By Truckers on their respective tours, scheduled for earlier this year. Then COVID-19 struck, resulting in the untimely passing of John Prine and the cancellation of The Truckers’ tour.
They’ll Never Keep Us Down, a seven-track mini album, is a fund-raising project. The proceeds will benefit both Hood To The Holler, a non-profit organisation aiming to end racial injustice in Kentucky and farther afield, and Appalachian Citizens’ Law Centre. The latter represents coal miners and their families on issues of mine safety and black lung disease.
Sam Stone, the classic song written by Kelsey’s good friend John Prine, gets a slow burning honky tonk makeover. The title track and signature protest song was written by Hazel Dickens in 1976 for the Oscar winning documentary Harlan County, USA. Recalling her early bluegrass years, Kelsey sticks close to the original.
She’s joined by singer songwriter and poet Adia Victoria and noted vocalist and musical therapist Kyshona Armstrong on a rousing version of the Nina Simone famed song Mississippi Goddam. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, also recorded by Nina Simone, is given a country soul refashion with Nashville neighbour Devon Gilfillian on support vocals. A funky rendition of the Kris Kristofferson composition The Law Is For The Protection Of The People and a spacey interpretation of Neil Young’s anthem Ohio also feature.
Cover albums can be hit and miss affairs, but these selections, in their intended context, are outstanding. They each contain bruised and tender lyrics, Kelsey’s striking vocal deliveries and suitable arrangements. It’s an altogether noble project and a plea from Kelsey to her fellow southerners, for empathy and understanding, at a time when it’s most needed.
Review by Declan Culliton
My Darling Clementine Country Darkness Fretsore
Twelve of the thirteen tracks that feature on COUNTRY DARKNESS were previously released on three limited edition twelve-inch vinyl EP’s titled COUNTRY DARKNESS Vol. 1,2 and 3. An additional self-written bonus track Powerless is also included. The three mini albums were reviewed at length by ourselves at Lonesome Highway and the volumes are now released here in all their glory as a full album.
The recordings are a collaboration between husband and wife team Michael Weston King and Lou Dalgleish and Grammy Award winner Steve Nieve. The project, with the support and input of long time Costello sideman Nieve, found Michael and Lou trawling through Costello’s vast back catalogue, to select material that they deemed ripe for a country makeover. More often than not the choices were far from obvious, the common denominator being that in all cases their combined vocals and well-constructed arrangements add another dimension to a collection of killer songs.
The tracks selected are chosen from Costello’s work with both The Attractions and The Imposters and also include his more recent solo recordings. Interestingly, a number of the tracks chosen were collaborations Costello wrote including I Lost You (with Jim Lauderdale), I Felt The Chill Before The Winter Came (with Loretta Lynn) and That Day Is Done (with Paul McCartney).
A number of the covers remain close to the originals, others are given a new lease of life. Different Finger, Heart Shaped Bruise, Indoor Fireworks and Stranger In The House all particularly benefit from the ‘call and response’ duet makeovers.
The production duties were carried out by Michael Weston King, Steve Nieve and Colin Elliot (Richard Hawley). Also featured on the album are Shez Sheridan (bass) and Dean Beresford (drums) from Richard Hawley’s band. Matt Holland and Martin Winning also contribute.
The optimum fusion of superb songs, sympathetic arrangements and flawless vocals, COUNTRY DARKNESS is a must buy for lovers of both My Darling Clementine and Elvis Costello.
Review by Declan Culliton
Gillian Welch Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs Acorn
Recorded in arguably Gillian Welch’s most prolific period, BOOTS NO.2: THE LOST SONGS, is the final volume in a collection of forty-eight songs, recorded in the period between her 2001 release TIME (THE REVELATOR) and SOUL JOURNEY, which appeared two years later. Featuring little else but vocals, two guitars and occasional harmonica, the songs find Welch and her partner Dave Rawlings at their most stripped back and uninhibited.
When a tornado ripped through East Nashville last March, the roof of their home studio Woodland Studios was practically torn off. Fortunately, the couple were able to salvage their recording equipment, instruments and master recordings. The ten hours spent with no power, no cell phone coverage and no assistance, hastily removing the equipment to the safety of their nearby house, must have been daunting. Having managed to save what Welch has described as ‘every piece of our world’, she asked herself what she had actually intended to do with all these vintage archive recordings.
A self-confused perfectionist, these unfinished recordings would have been deemed unfit for public airing had the near disastrous event not occurred. The whole traumatic experience gave Welch cause for reconsideration and the net result has been the release of more of her material in the past six months than in the previous twenty years. Alongside the BOOTS VOLUMES, Welch and Rawlings also released ALL THE GOOD TIMES ARE PAST AND GONE in July. That project was recorded at their home during quarantine and presented cover versions of songs written by Bob Dylan and John Prine and others, together with their take on some traditional folk songs.
BOOTS NO.2: THE LOST SONGS is a pure delight, akin to gate crashing a performance by the couple in their front room. It’s unclear when the material was actually written but If I Ain’t Going to Heaven would have fitted comfortably on Welch’s debut album.
Make Me Down A Pallet On Your Floor and the albums closer One Little Song both featured on SOUL JOURNEY and the versions included here are true to those recordings. How About You featured on Dave Rawling Machine’s excellent 2009 album FRIEND OF A FRIEND. Other tracks have been aired in Welch’s live performances over the years, including the album opener Sin City. What oozes out of the speakers is a couple at ease and equally enjoying ripping out acoustic rockabilly on Turn It Up, smoky jazz on What Can I Do and lonesome country on Cowboy Rides Away.
An album release by Gillian Welch is always a much anticipated affair. To have three releases in 2020 would have been unthinkable at the beginning of the year. The scars of that tornado still remain in East Nashville as the community gradually rebuilds that musically fertile townland. Thankfully Woodland Studios still stands proudly and hopefully will be the source of further gems from Welch and Rawlings in the future.
Review by Declan Culliton